A 6-foot-tall, bespectacled professor got down on his hands and knees and crawled along the ground. He had an aspirator in his mouth, sucking up Pheidole workers like an anteater.
My friend and colleague Ed Wilson was on a mission. That night, he needed Pheidole soldiers for his taxonomic work, and he wasn’t having much luck finding them. After spending two weeks or so in the La Selva rainforest of Costa Rica, we had returned to the city of San José. It was the evening before our departure and return to Boston. Ed invited me to a restaurant located behind a little city park close to our hotel.
It was at the entrance to the park that he spotted the trail of the Pheidole ant colony. But all that he seemed to be capturing was workers, not soldiers. So he continued to crawl along the trail all the way to the nest entrance. There, to the absolute bewilderment of park visitors, he approached (quite obliviously) a young couple embracing behind a bush where the Pheidole nest entrance was located.
Alas, the behavior of this fanatic myrmecologist was so suspicious that the police appeared on the scene to inquire about his activities. Needless to say, we never made it to the little restaurant that he had recommended to me with mouthwatering superlatives. But that evening Ed discovered six new Pheidole species in the San José city park.
Shaping a Generation
Denne historien er fra July/August 2020-utgaven av Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Denne historien er fra July/August 2020-utgaven av Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.
